There are a number of telephone systems that are very well known in the art. The oldest system, and probably still the most widely used, is a public switched telephone network (PSTN) where a simple telephone is physically coupled to a telephone network via conducting wires. An extension to the PSTN comprises a cordless telephone system, typically used in a home or an office, where a portable telephone communicates in an unwired manner with a console in the home. The console is wired to the PSTN in place of the simple telephone, and the communication between the console and the portable phone is generally via a radio-frequency (RF) carrier, although other methods such as using an infra-red carrier are also known in the art.
A cable television (CATV) system may also be used as another wired system for transferring PSTN telephone signals. The CATV system is coupled at its uplink side to the PSTN. At the downlink side, e.g., in a home or office environment, a landline telephone may be coupled to the CATV system via a modem. The CATV system conveys the PSTN telephone signals via the CATV cables, using a carrier that is not used for transmitting television signals in the CATV system.
Cellular telephone systems use non-wired mobile cellular telephones that communicate with a central base-station. Communication between the mobile telephones and the base-station is via a cellular RF carrier, the cellular RF carrier being at a different frequency, and having substantially greater power, than the RF carrier of the cordless telephone system. Furthermore, cellular telephones can only connect via a wireless connection and are unable to physically connect to their cellular network. Accordingly, it would be advantageous for there to be a method and apparatus that would allow a cellular telephone to communicate with the associated cellular network over a cable television network.